Somnia (Dream Corp.)

CHAPTER SIX

The reception room echoed with concerned voices and people trying to out-yell each other. Artemis was standing behind the counter desk, handing out weapons to whoever had managed to shove their way up front. There were two dozen people in the room, of which she and Adrien knew only a few, and it wasn't long after he had stepped out of Brandt's room that every eye turned on him. The guns she was spreading out suddenly became less important.

The ruckus had stopped but was started up again as a large man stepped out from the crowd and walked towards the two young man.

"So that's where you were hiding..."

Adrien showcased his palms as the man approached him with an alarming speed.

"... while you send your girlfriend to stutter shitty explanations." He stopped a foot from Adrien.

"Are we in danger?" A woman spoke somewhere inside the group, while shushing a crying child.

"We have a right to know!" Another voice yelled out from the furthest back.

"You're the ones that screwed up! We've been locked in here for weeks!" another said.

Adrien didn't give himself the chance to feel cornered. He knew how people reacted when they were scared, everyone wanted to find someone to blame. Well there was that someone, but he wasn't about to tell them that.

"Alright! Alright!" Adrien raised his voice and was eventually heard by everyone. "I know everyone is afraid. And you should be, if it will make you move faster." He caught Artemis' eye and was greeted by her mortified expression. Voices were starting to rise up again and this caused Adrien to stand taller and speak louder. He allowed the authority her never liked to boom out of him. "We knew this day was going to come," he spoke again. "It is nothing but a routine check-up, and we're lucky they didn't think to look this building until now. You've made a home here, I know, but in this world, we cannot afford comfort anymore. It's either stay and die or run and live." He looked at the man in front of him and whispered. "Think of your kids."

The people stayed quiet, leaving the room in an eerie silence broken only by stifled children's sobs. Adrien waited but nobody spoke up. The man that had so boldly walked up to him only a few minutes before was now retreating back, like a scolded kid ordered to put back the cookie he had stolen. He stood in front of Artemis' counter and shortly after others started to line up. Everyone else proceeded to stack up food and their belongings, even though they knew they couldn't carry it all.

"Alright then." Adrien said softly, relaxing his shoulders. He looked at Artemis but found her busy writing down the temporary owners of each gun she gave away, with a strained face that to many might have looked like concentration but Adrien knew it for what it was: anxiety and chaos.

Turning to Brandt, who had stood next to him with similar expression, he motioned they had to leave. He took his last glimpse of the people.